Part of the Big Picture: Sound Tracking film series in September.
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1h 52m / R / Drama
TRAILER:
VENUE: Historic Duncan Auditorium
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Mean Streets wasn’t director Martin Scorsese’s first feature. That was the independent Who’s That Knocking at My Door, an expanded student film with one-tenth of the budget of Mean Streets. It wasn’t his second, either; that was a work-for-hire exploitation picture he made for human conveyor belt Roger Corman. But Mean Streets was the first feature where Scorsese could be himself. So what else could it be? It’s the story of a broke, ambitious guy in Little Italy (Harvey Keitel as Charlie) making his own meager way in the world, balancing the magnetic pull of small-time crime with the guilt and responsibility of Catholicism, all while trying to keep his jackass friend (Robert DeNiro as Johnny) from ruining everything.
Try to imagine seeing this movie in 1973, without knowing what Scorsese would make in the future. He gets criticism (some fair, most lazy) for making “the same movie” over and over, and there’s definitely a family resemblance from Mean Streets through Goodfellas and Casino, maybe even The Irishman. But the perspective here — three years before Taxi Driver! Seven before Raging Bull! — was dizzyingly unusual. We could discuss that originality in terms of its treatment of the Mafia and class consciousness, and note that these are not the rich and powerful mobsters of The Godfather. We could discuss it in terms of Scorsese’s visionary use of, and trust in, his actors — he and DeNiro grew up together, and in their first collaboration, DeNiro shows himself to be a generational talent. But this month we’re talking about music, so instead we draw your attention to the soundtrack of contemporary pop, the kind of music the characters would actually be hearing as they moved through their sordid, brutal lives.
With limited exceptions like The Graduate and American Graffiti, this just wasn’t done. From the opening scene and its use of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” playing under home movies of Charlie and the opening credits, Mean Streets tipped audiences that they were in for something brand new, fierce and vital.
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